EECC Study Finds Intelligence in UHF RFID

The organization’s latest “UHF RFID Transponder Benchmark” survey found that this year’s chips and tags are 20 percent more sensitive than previous versions, on average, and that many are capable of controlling their communications as a precursor to more intelligence-based use cases.

Sep 26, 2018—

The European EPC Competence Center (EECC) has completed its latest annual UHF RFID chip survey, which finds that chips are gaining intelligence that could have implications for the furthering of affordable Internet of Things (IoT) adoption. Of the 400-plus UHF RFID chips being tested by the group, some offer functionality that takes tags from simply passive identifiers to intelligent devices that could sense conditions around them, tailor responses based on conditions or circumstance, and issue alerts based on environmental changes.

In addition to bringing functionality such as untraceable commands and other functions related to when and how RFID tags respond to interrogation, the survey also found that UHF chips have improved their sensitivity by about 20 percent over the previous year. The study, known as “UHF RFID Transponder Benchmark (UTPS) 2018-2019,” has grown in scope from 20 UHF RFID chips tested in 2007 to more than 400 for the current survey. The EECC calls it the worlds’ most comprehensive transponder benchmark in the world (see European EPC Competence Center Releases UHF Tag Study and EECC Benchmark Study Finds UHF Tag Performance Better Than Ever).